Reality TV Television Ratings News - January 2003

January 31, 2003ABC reports that the January 29th episode of "Celebrity Mole Hawaii" moved up into the No. 1 position in its time period among Adults 18-49 (5.3/13), beating CBS' "48 Hours" by 66% (3.2/8) and NBC's "Law & Order" by 6% (5.0/13). Winning its hour for the third week in a row, "Celebrity Mole" led the hour by its largest margin yet among Adults 18-34 (+41% over second-place NBC - 5.2/14 vs. 3.7/10).

January 26, 2003NBC got a dominating time-period debut out of “Meet My Folks” last night, as the hit relationship show scored NBC’s second-highest adult 18-49 rating in the Saturday, 10-11 p.m. slot since July 13, 2002.

January 23, 2003Variety reports that American Idol" mania continued Wednesday, as the season's second episode of Fox's hugely popular music talent show held onto about 95% of its premiere-night audience, taking a bite out of ABC's "The Bachelorette."

January 22, 2003Mediapost reports that second season premiere of "American Idol" opened big in the ratings -- real big. The series not only won Tuesday night's ratings race for FOX, but it made Tuesday FOX's highest-rated non-sports event night ever!

January 21, 2003The NY Daily News reports that, despite the heavy dose of continuing publicity that the Osbourne family has continued to draw to itself, ratings for the family's reality TV show on MTV have declined dramatically this year. Ratings for the most recent episode were the lowest of the season, attracting only about half the audience of the show's second-season premiere ... and they were even further below the audience numbers at the end of the show's first season in April. "The Osbournes" even finished behind MTV's long-running "The Real World" reality series.

January 21, 2003NBC’s hit relationship series “Meet My Folks” returned to the schedule triumphantly last night in a special Monday preview that generated the network’s highest non-sports rating among adults 18-49 in the Monday 10-11 p.m. ET hour since May 3, 1999 (“Noah’s Ark, Part 2”). Although a "CSI: Miami" repeat led the 10PM hour in total viewers, “Meet My Folks” ruled the hour in virtually all key demographic categories, beating the combined ABC-CBS competition among adults 18-34 and women 18-34.

January 16, 2003ABC reports that the second episode of their The Bachelorette" series once again dominated its ratings hour, besting an original episode of NBC's "West Wing" by 21% in Total Viewers (17.4 million vs. 14.4 million) and by 73% among Adults 18-49 (8.5/20 vs. 4.9/12). "The Bachelorette" topped the combined deliveries of NBC, CBS and Fox in the hour by 10% among Adults 18-34 (9.5/25 vs. 8.6/24).

January 9, 2003Variety reports that a great week for reality premieres continued Wednesday, with CBS' "Star Search" and ABC's "The Bachelorette" and "Celebrity Mole: Hawaii" all premiering to strong ratings. "Bachelorette" was the night's top-rated show in key demos, and "Star Search" and "Celebrity Mole" delivered their networks' best series scores in their time slots in more than two years.

January 9, 2003Geez what a difference a non-Friday night timeslot and a good lead-in can make. After pulling last season's "Mole 2" off the Frinday night Fall 2001 schedule after only three episodes and watching the series rebound when the series was later run on Wednesday evenings in Summer 2002, ABC reports that its "Celebrity Mole Hawaii" program debuted to strong numbers and delivered the network's best young adult audience retention this season for a series coming out of "The Bachelor" franchise. The celebrity whodunit program drew an average audience of 10.8 million viewers and notched a 5.3 rating, 14 share among Adults 18-49, placing second to NBC's "Law & Order" on both counts.

January 9, 2003The overnight ratings are in, and the debut of "The Bachelorette" was a resounding success, as the third edition premiere of the ABC franchise drew an average audience of 17.6 million viewers and earned an 8.5 rating, 20 in the key Adult 18-49 demo. "The Bachelorette" dominated its closest competition in the hour, topping an original episode of NBC's "West Wing" (14.0 million & 4.7/11) by 3.6 million viewers and by 81% in Adults 18-49. "The Bachelorette" stood as the No. 1 television program on Wednesday night in Adults 18-49, outdelivering the second-highest-rated program, an original episode of NBC's "Law and Order" (7.2/19), by a strong 18% in the key demo.

January 9, 2003CBS's premiere of "Star Search," hosted by Arsenio Hall, won its Wednesday (8:00-9:00 PM) time period in viewers, households and key demographics, according to final National Nielsen ratings for Jan. 8.

January 9, 2003According to the Associated Press, 'Joe Millionaire' not only had the highest-rated pemiere episode of the 2002-03 television season among "key demographics," as reported here, but it also had the highest-rated debut of any reality TV series during the current reality-TV boom.

January 7, 2003Zap2It,com reports that The WB's "High School Reunion" debuted to strong ratings, albeit on the Frog's smaller scale. The show's premiere at 9 p.m. ET Sunday (Jan. 5) drew 5.2 million viewers. It was the most-watched series debut in that timeslot in the network's history.